| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: my way up quiet, and got as near as I dared without bein' heard and
seen, and I listened. He was talkin' to a woman. I couldn't hear
everything they said, and they quarreled a lot; but I heard him say
something about framin' up a job to get somebody down to the old
iron plant behind Jake Malley's saloon and bump 'em off, and I
heard him say there wouldn't be any White Moll by morning, and I
put two and two together and beat it for here."
Rhoda Gray reached out and caught the Sparrow's hand.
"Thank you, Marty! You haven't got it quite right - though, thank
Heaven, you got it the way you did, since you are here now!" she
said fervently. "It wasn't me, it wasn't the White Moll, they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: forgotten dreams. When I woke, it was with a quick start, as if my
ship had been made fast, silently and suddenly, at the wharf of
reality, and the bell rang for me to step ashore.
But the vision of the white blot remained clear and distinct. And
the question that it had brought to me, the chain of thoughts that
had linked themselves to it, lingered through the morning, and made
me feel sure that there was an untold secret in Falconer's life and
that the clew to it must be sought in the history of his last
picture.
But how to trace the connection? Every one who had known Falconer,
however slightly, was out of town. There was no clew to follow.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: "own," which so long ago in our own tongue took to itself the symbol
of possession, well exemplifies his dependent state. China furnishes
the most conspicuous instance of the want of individual rights.
A Chinese son cannot properly be said to own anything. The title to
the land he tills is vested absolutely in the family, of which he is
an undivided thirtieth, or what-not. Even the administration of the
property is not his, but resides in the family, represented by its
head. The outward symbols of ownership testify to the fact.
The bourns that mark the boundaries of the fields bear the names of
families, not of individuals. The family, as such, is the proprietor,
and its lands are cultivated and enjoyed in common by all the
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: when once our leather and hides were improved, tanneries were easily
established along the waterside. We became tanners, and business
rapidly increased.
"Wine, properly speaking, had been hitherto unknown; a thin, sour
beverage like verjuice had been their only drink, but now wineshops
were established to supply a natural demand. The oldest tavern was
enlarged and transformed into an inn, which furnished mules to
pilgrims to the Grand Chartreuse who began to come our way, and after
two years there was just enough business for two innkeepers.
"The justice of the peace died just as our second prosperous epoch
began, and luckily for us, his successor had formerly been a notary in
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